Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-07-07
MARTHA WASHINGTON.

Facts Showing That she Was Not an Ed.
ucsted Woman In the Sense Of To-Day.
She did not spell well. and her gran,-
mar would hardly stand the parsing Of
the public schools. Copies of two of
her letters to her sister. Mrs. Bassett,
lie before ME. They were written at
about the beginning Of the revolution.
She begins one thus: II have wrote
to you'several times. in hopes it would
put you in mind of me. but find it
has not had its intended effect"
Further on she adds: 1.-The rivers has
never been frozen hard enough to
walk upon the ice since came here"
Among the misspeit words of the letter
are: Nancy for navy, '.loded" for
loaded, ''coles" for Goals. distant"
for destined, ''clerc' for clear,
''heare" for here, 'plesed'' for pleased,
and 'greatful" for grateful. Com
pany she spells occupancy" and per-
suadei '.perswaded.'
In the fac-simile of letter that she
wrote to William B. Reed, of New
York. in 1777. see that she knew no
other punctuation mark than the dash.
that the apostrophe was stranger to
her, and that her writing. though not
illegible, was far from beautiful or ele-
giant. The use of the capital was as
embarrassing to her as the u:e of the
punctuation point. and her letters look
as though the capitals had been shaken
out OF a mammoth pepper-bpx and per-
mitted to lie wherever they fell.
One of her letters, commencing '.My
dear Fanny" was lately communicated
by Rev. H. E. Hayden, of Pennsylvania.
to the Magazine Of -4merican History.
1t is dated mount Vernon. Aug. Z,
1884" and the verbatim spelling and
punctuation are preserved in the publ
cation. Some of the sentences begin
with capitals and some without. She
writes of '.My little nelly" referring
probably to Nellie Gusts, and in the
same line says that ''Tut is the same
claver (clevcr) boy you left him." thus
capitalizing the boys name. while she
gives no capital to that of the girl. She
writes Fanny ''that the General had re-
ceiyed letter from her paps" dated at
richmond" begins the next sentence
with a small letter. and in it capitalizes
Brothers," Families and "Gen-
eral.''
A person uses his best grammar
while writing. and he who makes mis-
takes here makes more in conversations
Martha Washington may have been
well educated in the school of society
and in that of life. She was certainly
not so in books and literature. There
was no library to speak of at Mount
Vernon, and General Washington was
more of an outdoor man than stu
dent. We have no record of his wife
being reader, save that she read
chapter in her Bible every morning
after breakfast She knew nothing
about novels, and the American month
ly magazine, the great family educator
of the present. was not yet born.
Martha Washington had, however.
the best advantages of the day. Her
whole life was spent among learned
men and bright women, but there is no
record left that she was brilliant in so
cial conversation. and you will read in
vain for the reported bon mOts of
Martha Washington. The truth seems
to be that Martha Washington thought
woman's sphere was home, and that
knitting and cooking We're more inn
pOrtant than writing letters and a
knowledge of French. She is said to
have been Il good buSiness-woman and
to have managed the large estate of her
first husband very ably before she
handed her share of it over to George
W aShin TtOn. Accommodations.